To the Edge and Back

To the Edge and Back: Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Later that night, I walk to the wall where Zach is on night watch. As I climb the ladder onto the bus, I can see Zach sitting with his legs crossed. He has his hatchet to his left and a silenced pistol to his right. He seems to be meditating.

"Hey," I say to him. "What are you doing here? You should be getting some sleep," he replies. "Just wanted to check on you buddy," I say, "And to thank you again for what you did the other day."

"Don't mention it. Ever," he sternly responds. "Why did you take up for me when you knew what I had done?" I ask him. He looks up at the stars for a moment, pondering his next words. "Because......even though you may do evil things, I'll still see the good in you. You're the closest thing that I've ever had to a brother and I don't want to lose that."

I think about what he said for a moment. "I don't want to lose you either man," I reply, "I consider you my brother too." I sit down next to him. We sit on the wall for a while in silence. It's almost peaceful.

After about a half an hour I climb back down the ladder and begin to walk back to the farmhouse. A quarter of the way there I hear three voices by the treeline. I go to investigate.

I see Alex, Dylan, and the albino sitting and talking about Leo. They notice me and instantly stop chatting. "Mind if I join you guys?" I ask. "Yes," says the albino, "We do mind."

"Geez, Walt, the guy probably saved our lives ten times today and that's how you repay him?" Dylan says with a shocked look. "He's crazy!" Walt udders, "He may have everyone else fooled, but not me. He's insane and I don't feel safe here with him around."

I quickly put my gauntlets on and run right to where the three guys are sitting. I bend over and look Walt right in the eyes. "Wanna say that to my face freak?" I ask. He stands up to match my height. "You. Are. Completely. Insane," he says directly to my face. "Leave.......or die," I threaten. He continues to stay where he is.

"I'm gonna count down from ten and if you aren't headed to the door when I reach zero, you'll just be another corpse," I tell Walt. "10. 9. 8." He doesn't move an inch. "7. 6. 5." Still, he doesn't move. He must have some sort of death wish then. "4. 3." This is his last chance. He doesn't move a muscle. "2." I glance over at Alex. Then, at Dylan. They both have terrified looks on their faces. "1."

I bring my gauntlet up to rip out his throat. My hand is about to pierce Walt's jugular vein when a hand reaches out and grabs mine. Zach kicks the back of my leg with full force and drags me to the ground.

"What do you think you're doing?" Zach asks in a hushed whisper, "You can't keep doing things like this. I won't always be there to stop you from making stupid decisions." He glares at me from above.

I push him off of me and climb to my feet. I walk away from them without looking back. I walk up to my room and crawl into my bed. I had almost killed someone for calling me a name. What am I becoming?

Six months go by and much progress has been made. The tension between Keaton and I has subsided. Walt has barely spoken to me since I threatened him. We began to run low on food and had to make runs into the small town near our sanctuary. We found more survivors there. Our tiny little group began to grow into a settlement as we found more and more survivors. We now have 149 people living on the farm and I the neighborhood across the highway.

Two months ago, we went on another mission to retrieve the rest of the Charter buses. Our wall then grew larger and stronger. We now cover the highway and the small neighborhood across from the farm with our wall. More weapons were found as time went on. More food too.

Dereck is still our prisoner. We tell anyone who decides to join our group about him so that there are no secrets. We keep him well fed. Amy even shaved his head when his hair brown hair began to grow pass his shoulders.

I searched everywhere for Haven, but still I can't seem to find her anywhere. Every run we go on I always volunteer to go so that I may have a chance to search for her. Sometimes I fear that the worst may have befallen her or death may have taken her, but I never give up hope.

I am just getting back from a run. I walk up the stairs to my room and I sit my things down on the floor. I grab three cans of beans from by bag and head back down to the kitchen. When I get there, Barbara is taking inventory of our food. I hand her the cans without saying a word.

I head out to the back yard to begin my inspection of the perimeter. I walk about fifty yards into the wood where the fence is. I begin to walk along it to see if it has any breaks in it. I get no more than a hundred feet when I hear a noise behind me.

Before I can turn around to see what it is, I feel the cold steel of a gun barrel on the back of my head. "I want revenge," the voice says, "I'm going to kill you, but not today. No, today, you suffer."

I know the voice. Dereck stands behind me with a pistol pointed straight at my head.